Authorize Connection to a Google Drive

Log into a Google account (e.g., Gmail, Google Plus, etc.) for the Drive account you want to integrate with Rank Ranger.

Open the Account Settings > Authorized Connections screen.

Click the Add Connection button to expand the option list.

Click the Google Drive button.

Select the Account

If more than one Google account is accessed with the computer or device you're using, then Google will ask you to choose an account.

Permissions

Rank Ranger requires access to view and manage files in your Google Drive in order to complete this integration. This involves creation of folders that contain Rank data files and any files you upload to Link Manager (more information about this use can be found in the Rank Data and Link Manager sections in this document).

Review the permissions that need to be granted and click the Allow button if you agree.

More info

Click the i icon to review the more information regarding the account permissions.
Click the OK button to close the window.

Name the Connection

Rank Ranger default is to name the connection based on the type (e.g., Google Drive) followed by the account name. You have the option to change that connection name during creation by entering the desired name in the Connection Name field and clicking the Update button. The name can also be edited later (refer to instructions in Authorize Connections).

Connect a Campaign to Google Drive

Integrate Campaign with Google Drive

Connecting a rank tracking campaign to Google Drive will allow you to export Rank Tracker Dashboard reports directly to a Rank Ranger campaign folder in your Drive, and use data that you have in a Google Sheet in our Insight Graphs and Metric Widgets.

After connecting a Google Drive account to your Rank Ranger account, open the Campaign Settings > Other Integrations screen

Scroll down the Google Drive section and select a connection from the list of Google Drive accounts authorized for use in your Rank Ranger account.

Click the Connect button.

Campaign Connected to Google Drive

It is important to click the Connect button after selecting the Drive account. When the Drive is correctly connected, Rank Ranger displays the Drive account name and usage. To disconnect a Drive account from a campaign, simply click the Disconnect link below the Drive account information on the Campaign Settings > General Settings screen.

Google Sheets Data in Insight Graph

Google Sheets integration makes it possible for you to produce a graph with internal company data (e.g., sales, offline advertising, net profit, etc.) that is not available via third-party integration. That data can easily be blended in a graph with our search engine rank and backlink data, search traffic, social media and email campaign performance, and more.

In this example, we've used Google Sheet data for the Total Sales and Offline Advertising expense, and added Website Sales (from Google Analytics tracking) and AdWords Spend per month (AdWords must be linked to your Google Analytics profile - refer to Link Google Analytics and AdWords).

Add Google Sheets Metric
Open an Insight Graph or Metric Widget and select:

Data Source: Other Integrations

Type: Google Sheets

In the Spreadsheet field, copy and paste the URL of the Google Sheet containing the data

Define the Metric Data

Select the Sheet name from the menu (each tab in Google Sheets has a label name, e.g., Sheet1, Sheet 2, or user assigned custom names)

Date and Value Ranges

Viewing the Google Sheet in another window, determine the data ranges and:

Enter the start cell and end cell that contain the dates

Enter the start cell and end cell that contain the values

Using the following Google Sheet example, the Insight Graph settings in the previous image correspond to a Date Range from cells A2 - A13; January 2019 - December 2019, and Avg Position from cells B2 - B13.

Important! Dates must be entered in the Google Sheet as numbers only (e.g., MM/DD/YYYY) regardless of the display format when viewing Google Sheets. In the above screenshot, Jan 2019 is displaying, but if you look in the fx cell the date is 1/1/2019.

Value Type: select Decimal or Integer

Y-Axis Name and Format Settings

By default each metric has its own separate Y Axis with a label matching the Metric Name field.

If you want the Y Axis name to be different than the metric name, you can enter the label in the Y Axis name field.

If you want a group of metrics all
plotted on the same Y axis, then enter the same Y Axis name when adding
each metric.

You can set the Y-Axis data to display in ascending or descending order.

Y-Axis Format Examples
In this example, the Avg Pos metric has a Y-Axis setting of Ascending, and the Clicks metric's Y-Axis is set to Descending to make a visual correlation between the average position and number of clicks.

In this example, the settings are reversed

In this example, the Avg Pos metric is displayed as a line with Y-Axis in Descending order and Clicks are set to Y-Axis Ascending order.

Insight Graph with Shared Y-Axis

In this example, "Percent" was entered in the Y Axis name field of all 4 metrics to cause them all to be graphed on the same scale.

Troubleshooting Google Sheets data in an Insight Graph
If the Google Sheet data does not appear on the screen at all:

Confirm that the campaign is connected the Google Drive account that the Sheet is located in.

Confirm that the connected Google account has not exceeded Google's Service Quota. Every time you or anyone you've shared online reports with loads or refreshes a screen, the data is called from Google's API. Therefore, we recommend only using Google Sheets for data that is not available in Rank Ranger via the variety of integrations that we offer.

If you see a 0 or a flat line at the 0 position for dates that do have data in your Google Sheet, that means that the selected range of values in the metric is incorrect and you need to replace it with the correct column and row references.

If the Google Sheet that you originally referenced in a metric has been modified in such a way that row numbers or column letters changed, then you need to update each metric previously added in Rank Ranger to match the new data structure (e.g., if you referenced data in Value Range B1:B12 and then inserted a column to the left of column B that changes it to column C, then you need to change the Value Range to C1:C12 in your Rank Ranger metrics).

If after following the above instructions, your Insight Graph doesn't display the data correctly from your Google Sheet:

Share that Google Sheet with service@rankranger.com and

Send an email to service@rankranger.com with the campaign name and Insight Graph location, for example:

Campaign Insight Graph report screen

Marketing Dashboard, along with page name and Insight Graph custom title

Client Dashboard

PDF Report name, along with Insight Graph custom title

Include screenshots or video of a specific behavior you experienced, if possible

Google Sheets Data in Metric Widgets

Integrate Google Sheets data with marketing metrics in single or multiple Metric Widgets

Google Sheets integration makes it possible for you to produce widgets that can include numbers, trend chart and comparison to previous period KPIs that are not available via third-party integration such as internal company data (e.g., sales, offline advertising, net profit, etc.). .

In this example, we've used Google Sheet data for the total sales vs. sales per region compared to previous period.

Open Graphs > Single Metric Widget, click the Add New Metric button and select:

Data Source: Other Integrations

Type: Google Sheets

In the Spreadsheet field, copy and paste the URL of the Google Sheet containing the data

Define the Metric Data

Select the Sheet name from the menu (each tab in Google Sheets has a label name, e.g., Sheet1, Sheet 2, or user assigned custom names).

Viewing the Google Sheet in another window, determine the data ranges and:

Enter the start cell and end cell that contain the dates

Enter the start cell and end cell that contain the values

Using the following Google Sheet example, the Metric settings in the previous image correspond to a Date Range from cells A2 - A3; February - March 2017, and Regional Sales for Australia from cells C2 - C3. The latest date in the series entered determines the current data, and the oldest date in the range is the data used for the previous period.

Troubleshooting Google Sheets data in Metric Widgets
If the Google Sheet data does not appear on the screen at all:

Confirm that the campaign is connected the Google Drive account that the Sheet is located in.

Confirm that the connected Google account has not exceeded Google's Service Quota. Every time you or anyone you've shared online reports with loads or refreshes a screen, the data is called from Google's API. Therefore, we recommend only using Google Sheets for data that is not available in Rank Ranger via the variety of integrations that we offer.

If you see a 0 or a flat line at the 0 position for dates that do have data in your Google Sheet, that means that the selected range of values in the metric is incorrect and you need to replace it with the correct column and row references.

If the Google Sheet that you originally referenced in a metric has been modified in such a way that row numbers or column letters changed, then you need to update each metric previously added in Rank Ranger to match the new data structure (e.g., if you referenced data in Value Range B1:B12 and then inserted a column to the left of column B that changes it to column C, then you need to change the Value Range to C1:C12 in your Rank Ranger metrics).

If after following the above instructions, your Single Metric Widget doesn't display the data correctly from your Google Sheet:

Share that Google Sheet with service@rankranger.com and

Send an email to service@rankranger.com with the campaign name and Metric Widget location, for example:

Campaign Single Metric Widgets report screen

Marketing Dashboard, along with page name and Metric Widget custom title

Client Dashboard

PDF Report name, along with Metric Widget custom title

Include screenshots or video of a specific behavior you experienced, if possible

The exported file displays in the browser and can be opened with a variety of tools or closed and viewed later.

View Rank Report in Google Sheets

In the above example, I chose to open the rank report data in Google Sheets and am now able to work with that data as needed.

View Rank Ranger Campaign Data in Google Drive

After exporting a report from Rank Ranger to Google Drive, you will see a folder for each campaign in that Drive.
You can rename those folders and move them to other locations within that same Drive and Rank Ranger will continue to write to that folder when you export additional reports for that same campaign as long as authorized access exists in your Account & Campaign Settings for that Drive. These folders can be shared with others in the same manner you share any folder in Google Drive.

Rank Data Files in Google Drive for 1 Campaign

In this example you see the Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams campaign with 3 files; 2 CSV files of the Dashboard report for each reflecting a different date, and 1 Google Sheet file for the date that I opened and edited the CSV file data using Google Sheets. Like all Google Drive files, these files can be shared with others and downloaded to a local computer drive.

Google Drive Error

If after clicking the CSV to Drive option, you recieve an error message from Google indicating that you need permission, that indicates that you are not logged into the Google Drive account that is connected to the campaign. You may choose one of two methods to resolve this error:

Click the Switch accounts button and select and log into the Google account that is connected to the campaign

Change the Google Drive account that is connected to the campaign in the Campaign Settings > Other Integrations screen, to the Google account that you are logged into while working in Rank Ranger.

Select a Drive Connection and click the Save button. When successfully connected, the Google Drive user's name and usage statistics display.

Add Files to Link Details

After connecting a Google Drive to Link Manager, open the Campaigns > Link Manager screen and click the Edit (pencil) icon for an individual link.

Scroll down the screen to the Files & Documents section.

Click the Choose File button, navigate to and select the file on your computer.

Click the Upload button

Successful File Upload to Google Drive

When files display in the Files & Documents section of a Link Details screen, they have been successfully uploaded to the Google Drive account connected in the Localization & Settings screen.
From here authorized users of the Rank Ranger account can download or delete the files.

Google Drive Link Manager Folders

Each individual Link is assigned an ID in the Link Manager and those IDs become the folder names in the Google Drive connected to the Rank Ranger account. Folders can be shared, renamed and moved to other locations in Google Drive as needed.
Files can be deleted from the Link Details screen by an authorized user* or from Google Drive.

*By default, a user can only manage the links s/he created unless "Manage Account Links" permission is granted by the account administrator (refer to Manage Users permissions).